Stacey at the Bat

Disney Classic # 10 - Melody Time

First things first - I have to mention that this cake is not of the greatest quality. It was the first I made after being discharged from hospital, I was still feeling unwell and my medication was making me a bit dippy. But I had to start somewhere - so please forgive the very rough edges, the backwards treble clef, and the uneven spacing between the semi-quavers and rest assured that the cake still tasted good regardless of it's flaws!

Melody Time was another of the Disney Classics that I'd never seen, so yet again I found myself scouring the Internet to find information about it that would give me ideas/inspiration for a desert that would go with the feature. The Internet told me that, like Make Mine Music, Melody is a contemporary version of Fantasia. Since watching it I would disagree - Melody Time is an anthology of charming shorts, that reminded me of watching cartoons on the Disney channel as a child, but I didn't know that before making the cake and watching the movie, so I had to go on what the Internet told me. I had thought of making more whoopie pies (different variations this time) because I loved them so much last time - but then I decided to try something different.
POPPING CANDY

OK, so I did it for Fantasia, but it was great fun! Popping candy is such a great ingredient, and it's really difficult to find desert recipes that use it (other than "and sprinkle some popping candy on top before serving.") Way back when I had the idea to make musical cupcakes for Fantasia I searched for desert recipes that used popping candy, and came across Heston Blumenthal's popping candy cake. Whilst Heston's recipe wasn't what I had in mind for Fantasia, I thought it would make a great cake for Melody Time. (I like to think Heston would approve of my Disney-themed cakes...)

You may have also noticed the Melody Pops in the photo - I threw these in for good measure. I was a bit disappointed that they no longer put a music sheet which explains how to play a nursery rhyme on the lollipop, but I remembered a little bit of Mary Had a little Lamb, and we had a lot of fun playing with them too!

Donald and his popping candy hose pipe...

I found Heston's original recipe here, I changed a few bits (I don't like coffee for starters!) but mostly stayed true to the original recipe. One comment I will make about this recipe is that I found the flavour of the popping candy a little over-powering and I couldn't make my mind up whether it actually went with the chocolate and hazelnut. That's probably my own fault as I used strawberry flavoured popping candy - but as far as I know popping candy is only available in strawberry, cherry and cola flavour, so strawberry seemed the best option. Saying that though, my friend Big Mike thought that the strawberry actually complimented the chocolate, so again it's probably a matter of taste rather than a bad recipe. I don't like Neapolitan ice cream either, so maybe I'm just personally adverse to chocolate and strawberry going together.

Prep time: 30-40 mins          Cook time: No cook, but 4 hours refrigeration required    Serves: 10-12

Ingredients:

For the base:

100g hazelnuts
100g milk chocolate
85g (15 packets) popping candy
2 tsp mixed spice

For the chocolate mousse:

350g dark chocolate
400ml double cream
pinch of salt

To decorate:

50g dark chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. Line a spring form/loose bottom cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Roast the hazelnuts for 10 minutes until golden brown. Blend to a paste in a food processor, and then put to one side.
3. Place a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and break the milk chocolate into it. Once the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the mixed spice, popping candy and hazelnut puree.
4. Press the popping candy mixture evenly into the base on the lined cake tin and place this in the fridge for 2 hours to set.
5. Once the base is almost set, prepare the mousse. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces in a large bowl.
6. In a heavy based saucepan, bring 150ml of the cream to the boil. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate, and stir until all of the chocolate has melted. And a pinch of salt to the mixture, and put it to one side to cool.
7. Whip the remaining cream to soft peaks, and then gently fold this into the chocolate mixture until combined.
8. Spoon the mixture over the popping candy base and return to the fridge for a further two hours to set.
9. Whilst the mousse is setting, prepare the decorations for the top. Melt the dark chocolate and pipe shapes onto some greaseproof paper. I used musical notes, but any shapes would work. Place these in the fridge to set.
10. Once the mousse has set, remove both the cake and the decorations from the fridge. Carefully run a hot knife around the edge of the cake pan to loosen the mousse from the sides, then remove the cake from the pan and place on a serving plate. Gently lift each chocolate shape from the greaseproof paper and place onto the cake, being careful not to handle to chocolate shapes too much as they will melt easily in your hands!
11. Keep the cake in the fridge until it is ready to cut into slices and serve. Enjoy! (Melody Pops are optional but recommended!)

Next time - we'll be watching The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and I'll be making the Headless Horseman's flaming pumpkin head!

Happy Thoughts
x

Fee Fi Fo Fum...

Disney Classic # 9 - Fun and Fancy Free

Whilst I've never seen Fun and Fancy Free as a whole before, one of the two shorts featured, Mickey and the Beanstalk, was one of my absolute favourites as a child. (Although I must admit I did not recall the rather creepy and at times inappropriate ventriloquist dummies!)


One scene in particular took my fancy for the cake this week: when Mickey, Donald and Goofy first enter the Giant's castle there is a giant feast on the table... Originally I thought it would be awesome to try to make the biggest jelly you've ever seen, like the one that Goofy gets stuck on. But then I settled on two ideas: something chocolate with pistachios (the Giant walks in, picks up a pot and says "yummmmmm, chocolate pot roast with, pistach, pisfach, green gravy") or a cake which looks like a massive sandwich (the Giant eventually sits down to eat a sandwich, which Mickey was hiding in!! Oh no!!)
 
I put these two ideas to the vote, and whereas the sandwich got one solitary vote, everyone else decided on chocolate and pistachio. So I decided to make melt in the middle chocolate puddings (mini chocolate pot-roasts, minus the meat) with pistachio ice cream (green gravy).
 

The cake that got away...

This desert was based on recipes I found here and here, with some slight amendments. The quantities below made 8 individual chocolate puddings and more than enough ice cream to go with it! (There was a pretty big turn out this week...) If it suits you to make less, just reduce the quantities accordingly. PLEASE NOTE: The original recipe for the ice cream states that due to the un-cooked egg in it, the ice-cream is unsuitable for the pregnant or infirm. The rest of us thought it tasted delicious!

Pistachio Ice Cream

Prep time: 20 mins         Freeze time: At least 6 hours         Serves: 8-12

As the ice-cream takes at least 6 hours to set, I recommend making this the night before.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
60g caster sugar
300ml double cream
1-2tsp vanilla essence
100g shelled pistachios
10g dark chocolate

1. Blend 50g of the pistachios to a paste, and crush the other 50g with a rolling pin until they are in small "chunks"
2. Separate the eggs and put the egg yolks to one side.
3. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, and then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the mixture is stiff and glossy.
4. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until pillowy but not stiff
5. Mix the egg yolks and vanilla extract.
6. Using a spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the egg white mixture until almost combined.
7. Fold in the egg yolks a spoonful at a time until all ingredients are combined to make a smooth, fluffy mixture.
8. Add the pistachio paste and crushed pistachio pieces into the mixture, and grate in the chocolate. gently fold these into the mixture, being careful not to loose too much of the air from it.
9. Pour the mixture into a freezer proof container (I used a loaf tin and covered this with cling film) and freeze for at least 6 hours. Remove the container from the freezer 10 minutes before serving.

I've made this ice cream (and other variants) a few times now, and as long as it remains covered it seems to keep well in the freezer for at least 3-4days. Unfortunately it's never lasted longer than that for me to be able to comment on how long this will keep for!

Melt in the Middle Puddings

Prep time: 30-40 mins           Cook time: 10 mins        Serves: 8


Ingredients:

For the filling (the melting middle):

100g milk chocolate
50g dark chocolate
100ml double cream

For the pudding:

200g margarine
200g light brown sugar
4 medium eggs
100g plain flour
80g cocoa powder
50g ground almonds

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6.
2. Prepare the "melting middle". Break the chocolate into chunks and melt in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir in the double cream and the chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
3. Grease 8 individual ramekins or pudding moulds.
4. Beat together the margarine and the sugar. In a separate bowl beat the eggs, then beat the eggs into the margarine mixture gradually.
5. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and almonds and mix until all of the ingredients have combined and you have a thick batter.
6. Remove the filling from the fridge and beat to loosen. 
7. Half fill each ramekin with the pudding mixture, and then use a teaspoon to make a "well" in the middle of the mixture. Fill the well with the filling mixture, and then top with more pudding mixture.
8. Place the ramekins on a flat baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until firm to touch.
9. Serve immediately with the pistachio ice cream, but do be careful not to burn yourself on the hot ramekins!

Next time - it's Melody Time. This is another that I've never seen, and I'm going to attempt an adaption of Heston Blumenthal's Popping Candy Cake.

Happy Thoughts

x

Make Mine Whoopies - Part 3

This is the final of the three recipes I baked for Make Mine Music - Chocolate Whoopie Pies! You can find my natter, ideas and reasoning for choosing whoopie pies, and the recipe for the Salted Peanut variety on the original post here. The recipe for the vanilla variety can be found here. I had originally posted all three together, but it made a mega long blogpost of doom which was not useful in any way, shape or form, so I decided to split them.

Besides, Make Mine Music is an anthology of shorts, so it makes sense for there to be an anthology of recipes for this Disney Classic. I couldn't have planned it better!



Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Ingredients:


For the cakes:

60g cocoa powder
300g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
100g unsalted butter
175g brown sugar
1 medium egg
1tsp vanilla essence
125ml milk

For the Filling:

200g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
50g unsalted butter

For the Topping:

200g icing sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
warm water
chocolate sprinkles/decorations

1. Start by preparing the filling, as this needs 30 mins to set. Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and add the butter and cream. Stir until all of the chocolate has melted and combined with the other ingredients. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and leave to one side to set.
2. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
3. Into a large bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and egg until creamy. In a third bowl, lightly beat together the milk and vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the butter mixture in alternate spoonfuls, beating well until all of the ingredients have combined.
5. Using two teaspoons to shape the batter into rough balls, dollop balls of the mixture onto the baking tray, leaving adequate space for the to expand. Bake in the preheated oven for around 10-12 minutes, until firm to touch.
6. Leave the cake rounds on the baking tray to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely. (Note: I couldn't fit all 24 rounds on one baking tray, so I did them 12 at a time.)
7. Once the rounds are completely cooled, prepare your topping. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl and add a few drops of warm water. Keep adding warm water a few drops at a time until the icing reaches a thick but spreadable consistency. Spread the icing over the peaked side of half of the cake rounds and garnish with your choice of decorations.
8. Once the chocolate cream filling has cooled, beat this for 5 minutes on full speed with an electric hand mixer, until the chocolate cream filling is light and fluffy. Spread a generous amount of the filling on the flat side of the other half of the cake rounds, then sandwich the rounds together to make your whoopies!

Happy Thoughts
x

Make Mine Whoopies - Part 2

This is the recipe for the Vanilla Whoopie Pies I made for Make Mine Music. You can find my natter, ideas and reasoning for choosing whoopie pies, and the recipe for the Salted Peanut variety on the original post here. The recipe for the chocolate variety can be found here. I had originally posted all three together, but it made a mega long blogpost of doom which was not useful in any way, shape or form, so I decided to split them.

Besides, Make Mine Music is an anthology of shorts, so it makes sense for there to be an anthology of recipes for this Disney Classic. I couldn't have planned it better!

Note: this recipe called for 250ml Buttermilk. Unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on any buttermilk, so I made my own substitute using 250ml milk and 2 tbsp lemon juice. If you can get buttermilk it's probably best to use that! Also, I followed the recipe and decorated my vanilla whoopies with pink icing/sprinkles, but any colour would look just as well!

Ingredients:

For the cakes:

125g margarine

200g caster sugar

1 large egg

Few drops vanilla essence

450g plain flour

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

250 ml buttermilk (or 250ml milk and 2 tbsp lemon juice)

For the Filling:

150g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

pink food colouring

drop of vanilla essence

For the Topping:

150g icing sugar

warm water

Pink sprinkles/ hundreds and thousands to decorate

1. If you are making the buttermilk substitute, start by preparing this, as it will take 30 minutes to 1 hour for the milk to curdle. Add the lemon juice to the milk and put to one side for at least 30 mins to thicken.
2. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg and the vanilla essence and beat until combined.
4. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate bowl. Gradually add spoonfuls of the flour mixture and spoonfuls of the buttermilk to the margarine mixture, mixing well each time to create a thick batter.
5. Using two teaspoons to shape the batter into rough balls, dollop balls of the mixture onto the baking tray, leaving adequate space for the to expand. Bake in the preheated oven for around 10-12 minutes, until firm to touch.
6. Leave the cake rounds on the baking tray to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely. (Note: I couldn't fit all 24 rounds on one baking tray, so I did them 12 at a time.)
7. Whilst the cake rounds are cooling, prepare the buttercream filling by placing the butter into a bowl and beating until soft. Add the icing sugar to this and continue to beat until combined. Mix in the vanilla essence and food colouring, until you reach the desired colour.
8. Once the rounds are completely cooled, prepare your topping. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add a few drops of warm water. Keep adding warm water a few drops at a time until the icing reaches a thick but spreadable consistency. Spread the icing over the peaked side of half of the cake rounds and decorate with your sprinkles. (Tip: work quickly with the icing and the sprinkles, the icing dries quite quickly!)
9. Spread a generous amount of the pink buttercream filling on the flat side of the other half of the cake rounds, then sandwich the rounds together to make your whoopies!

Happy Thoughts
x

Make Mine Whoopies - Part 1

Disney Classic #8 - Make Mine Music

So this post comes a little later than planned, (I originally started writing it on the 27th June!) Unfortunately I fell quite seriously ill at the end of June, so the Disney cakes and the blog took a back seat... I'm now starting to get back on track though and have a few cakes to write about, so hopefully the blog will return to its former glory (and a weekly post).

Again I'd never seen this movie (although I had seen a couple of the segments!) so it was difficult at first to come up with an idea for a cake. So I did a little background research into the movie.

During the war many of the Disney Studio animators were drafted into the army, and those remaining were given the task of creating propaganda shorts. This lead to Disney having very few resources to continue to create full length features, despite their growing popularity, and this lead to a series of feature length "anthologies" of shorts until the release of Cinderella in 1950.

Make Mine Music was intended to be a contemporary version of Fantasia, using popular music rather than classical music.

And that was my inspiration for the cake... a contemporary version of a classic. Ladies and gents, allow me to introduce to you the "whoopie pie" - described as a modern twist to the classic cupcake, whoopie pies are the new "in vogue" baked good. (Or so the Internet tells me - I didn't even know that baked goods had a vogue.) And doubly relevant considering I made cupcakes for Fantasia!!

Those Whoopie Pies really made my mouth water!

I'm going to take a moment here to apologise in advance for the length of this post. I got a bit carried away and decided to make three different types of whoopies, so below, rather than one recipe, there are actually three!! Original recipes found here, here and here.

EDIT October 2012: I decided this blog post was too long to be useful to anybody, so I've decided to split it into three parts - one part for each of the recipes. Below is the recipe for the Salted Peanut Whoopies. The Vanilla Whoopies can now be found here, and the Chocolate variety can now be found here!

Salted Peanut Whoopie Pies

Prep time: Overnight     Cook time: 10-12 mins    Makes 12 Whoopies

For all of the other whoopies, I made the frosting while the cakes were cooling. However, as the peanut frosting uses cream cheese it's best to make it the night before and leave it in the fridge to set, otherwise it can be quite runny!

For the cakes:

280g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

2tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g light brown sugar

60ml sunflower oil

125ml creme fraiche

1 large egg

60ml boiling water

For the filling:

200g soft cheese
250g icing sugar
50g butter
100g salted peanuts

For the topping:

100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
150g icing sugar
handful of crushed peanuts to decorate

1. Start by making the peanut frosting for the filling. Crush the peanuts until they are like breadcrumbs. I did this by hand, mortar and pestle style, but it would be a lot easier if you had a blender. Melt the butter and set to one side to cool.
2. Place the icing sugar and soft cheese into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer for two minutes, gradually building up the speed. Add the cooled butter and crushed peanuts and continue to beat for a further 3 minutes. Transfer the frosting into a small bowl, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed.
3. Make the cake rounds. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
4. Place the sugar in a large mixing bowl and break up any lumps with your hands. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into the bowl and then mix together.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, creme fraiche and oil together. Add the boiling water whilst still whisking then immediately stir the liquid into the flour and sugar mixture. Be careful not to overwork the mixture - once it has all combined stop mixing. Leave the batter to rest for 5 minutes.
6. Using two teaspoons to shape the batter into rough balls, dollop balls of the mixture onto the baking tray, leaving adequate space for the to expand. Bake in the preheated oven for around 10-12 minutes, until firm to touch.
7. Leave the cake rounds on the baking tray to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely. (Note: I couldn't fit all 24 rounds on one baking tray, so I did them 12 at a time.)
8. While the cake rounds are baking/cooling, make the chocolate cream for the topping. Break the chocolate into chunks and place in a small saucepan along with the cream. Heat on the lowest temperature, stirring continuously until all of the chocolate has melted.
9. Remove from the heat and then sift the icing sugar into the chocolate and cream mixture. Beat the chocolate cream for around 5 minutes and then transfer into a small bowl. Leave the mixture to one side for 20-30minutes to thicken and cool.
10. Once the cake rounds, topping and filling are all cooled/set, assemble the whoopie pies. On the peaked side of 12 of the cake rounds, spread a generous amount of the chocolate cream mixture and then sprinkle with a few crushed peanuts to decorate.
11. Spread a generous amount of the peanut frosting on the flat side of the other 12 of the cake rounds, then sandwich the rounds together to make your whoopies!

Phew! Still here? Well, after all of that you will end up with a kitchen full of delicious whoopie pies! I think I'm going to have to try to refrain from doing too many different recipes at once as the posts end up ridiculously long (plus I had way too many whoopie pies, even after we'd all gorged on them during the film, I ended up sending everyone home with 2 or 3 pies each and still had some to spare!)

Next time it's Fun and Fancy Free, and I honed in on making the Giant's chocolate pot roast with pistachio gravy from Mickey and the Beanstalk. Yum yum!

Happy Thoughts

x

Apologies...

It has been rather a long time since I posted anything, which is both really sad and really bad of me.

Unfortunately, I fell rather sick towards the end of June, and subsequently there were no Disney nights for the entire month of July! Ahhhhhhhhh THE HORROR!!

I am now getting better and back on track, and the Disney nights will be starting up again this week - wooohooo! I also still have a couple of recipes to type up from the end of June, so hopefully this blog will return to it's former glory of having a weekly post of piccies and recipes! (Although I should warn you, the next post is really *REALLY* long - I ended up getting a bit carried away with the whoopie pies!)

Please bear with me, the weekly posts will resume as of Wednesday next week - watch this space!

Happy thoughts

x